Scientists have criticized Mariah Carey's mathematics skills, after she appropriated Albert Einstein's mass-energy equivalence formula for an album title.

The singer called her recent album E=MC2, but rather than reference the famous equation, she declared the tile stood for "emancipation equals Mariah Carey times two".

Mathematician Dr. David Leslie told BBC News that he was upset that the singer had had "misread the algebra."

"The 'two' in the equation means C squared, not MC multiplied by two," he explained. "The correct reading of the equation is E=MCC, so perhaps Mariah's re-interpretation should have been 'emancipation equals Mariah Carey Carey'?"

Carey has not commented on her slip-up, but she was one of several celebrities pulled up by charity Sense About Science about their misleading "scientific" claims.